Measurement of the W boson polarisation in t\bar{t} events from pp collisions at √{s} = 8 TeV in the lepton + jets channel with ATLAS

Aaboud, M. and Aad, G. and Abbott, B. and Abdallah, J. and Abdinov, O. and Krasznahorkay, Attila and Pásztor, Gabriella and Tóth, József (2017) Measurement of the W boson polarisation in t\bar{t} events from pp collisions at √{s} = 8 TeV in the lepton + jets channel with ATLAS. EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL C, 77. ISSN 1434-6044

Preview

Text 1612.02577.pdf Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

This paper presents a measurement of the polarisation of W bosons from t\bar{t} decays, reconstructed in events with one high-p_{{ T }} lepton and at least four jets. Data from pp collisions at the LHC were collected at √{s} = 8 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb^{-1}. The angle θ ^{*} between the b-quark from the top quark decay and a direct W boson decay product in the W boson rest frame is sensitive to the W boson polarisation. Two different W decay products are used as polarisation analysers: the charged lepton and the down-type quark for the leptonically and hadronically decaying W boson, respectively. The most precise measurement of the W boson polarisation via the distribution of cos {θ ^{*}} is obtained using the leptonic analyser and events in which at least two of the jets are tagged as b-quark jets. The fitted fractions of longitudinal, left- and right-handed polarisation states are F<SUB>0</SUB>= 0.709 ± {0.019}, F<SUB>L</SUB>= 0.299 ± {0.015} and F<SUB>R</SUB>= -0.008 ± {0.014}, and are the most precisely measured W boson polarisation fractions to date. Limits on anomalous couplings of the Wtb vertex are set.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item